G7, Sisci: “Biden demonstrates US strength, China to the test”

Joe Biden’s United States “thinks about post-Covid”, puts vaccines in it and “claims to have the technological, financial and global resources to set up a new world of its own”. Francesco Sisci, sinologist, professor of geopolitics at Luiss, reasons with Adnkronos on the prospects of the G7, which “could mark the beginning of a turning point”, and underlines “three important elements with which Biden presents himself at this summit”, elements that “they are beginning to outline an overall American strategy towards China”, not “simply a question and answer or sanctions”, but a strategy within the strategy, a policy that fits into the “overall American global strategy” and that could “put on the defensive “Beijing,” somehow perhaps forced to change direction, way of thinking “. Sisci highlights as the first element the United States Innovation and Competition Act, the maxi plan worth 250 billion dollars just approved by the US Senate. “It is about the whole Italian Recovery Plan – he says – All exclusively focused on the renewal of technology”. And it could “lead to a new world technological revolution” also because “modern technologies, Internet, aviation, … have all had a dual implication, both civil and military” .. ‘Blue Dot Network against the Silk Road, vaccines to affirm greater US efficiency in the fight against viruses Second element, “the real launch” of the Blue Dot Network, made up of the United States, Japan and Australia, “an infrastructure initiative in which Japan and Australia take the lead” and that – says the sinologist – “it is opposed to the Chinese Silk Road project” and could “be supported with trillions of American funds”. And then again, vaccines. The most ‘immediate’ “element” of the three indicated by Sisci because it can be ‘seen’ immediately. Pfizer / BioNTech has confirmed its intention to supply the US government with 500 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine (200 million this year and 300 next) to the US government at cost to support international efforts against the pandemic. . The vaccines will be donated to developing countries and the organizations that support them. “Five hundred million vaccines do not vaccinate the world, but – observes the expert – the vaccine developed by Pfizer could at this point cover a large part of the world and developing countries and therefore claim that America is more efficient than China. against the virus “. Also because, he continues, “the vaccine developed by Pfizer is so far the one that gives better and stronger results than the Chinese vaccines”. ‘It is difficult not to align with the United States, no one asks for a collaboration with Beijing’ According to Sisci, “with this series of robust initiatives it is difficult for the G7 countries not to align themselves with the US “. “It will not be easy – he admits – but at the moment Biden is not asking any country to interrupt relations with China”, there is no need to “draw a line on collaboration” between Europeans and the People’s Republic, with economies always more interconnected, because – he says – Biden “is only showing the strength of the American presence” with a strategy that leads to “putting collaboration with China, and also with Russia, in another light”. Is this a turning point? “This G7 – he replies – could mark the beginning of the turning point. It could also begin to be a wake-up call for China. The Chinese back thought is that America is in decline, while these initiatives could signal that America had somehow ‘asleep’ for a while and now she’s back “. “We will have to see how China will react”, he replies, recalling how the line of a “more lovable, softer” China that must avoid harsh confrontations was leaked from the pages of the People’s Daily. And, he concludes, “these initiatives are in principle not hostile to China, but they prove America’s strength, they are not aimed at destroying China and could be the way to improve the situation in relations because the Chinese are not really warriors, they are, to put it bluntly, ‘merchants’ “. The “warring war” remains in the “background”.